DIY Bless The Food Sign Using A Cricut Explore

My DIY Bless the Food Sign story. I painted my dining room about a year ago. And never placed the artwork back on the walls. I needed a fresh look. Do you ever get that way? You change one thing in a room and suddenly everything in that room is awful? I thought it would be easy to find interesting and inexpensive pieces to hang on those bare walls. Now it’s a year later and I have found nothing. I mean nothing I like. If I did find something it was far more money than I wanted to pay. I am cheap frugal.

DIY Bless The Food Sign

Browsing through some of my favorite home stores I came across a sign with a Bless this food prayer on it. I loved it but not the price. So began my journey to another DIY wood art sign.

Wood art signs are one of my favorite way to decorate my home. Using the Cricut Explore to make sticker stencils is the best place to start. I found a Bless this food SVG file here. This site has a ton of free files. You need to check it out for lots of other great quotes to use with your Cricut or Silhouette machine.

I started with a 2ft x 2ft piece of plywood from the hardware store. Painted it black because I wanted my lettering to shine through. The wood should have been sanded because it was quite rough and made it difficult to adhere the vinyl lettering to it. So make sure you sand the wood. Lesson learned.

Cricut Design Space

Here is a screenshot of part of the saying Bless the food in Cricut Design Space. I wanted the lettering to fill the entire space on my sign. Using the 12 x 24 inch cutting mat, I cut the prayer into two parts. Each part was 12 x 24. So together the prayer filled my entire board. This sign is the perfect size for my dining room wall.

Cricut Design Space has recently come out with a newer version. It is in Beta right now and you can download it. I have played with the new version. It is hands down so much better than the current version. This version doesn’t use Adobe Flash! I have had many problems with flash. No more. Check out the Cricut Blog for more info on all the new features.

After cutting out the lettering on my Cricut Explore using Contact paper, I weeded out the lettering. Weeding is the process of removing the unwanted vinyl.

I then applied transfer tape to the vinyl letters. The transfer tape picks up the letters as a whole so they can be placed on the sign without placing them individually. It takes it from the backing sheet of the vinyl and exposes the adhesive of the vinyl. It is essentially transferring the design to your intended project.

I placed the two sheets on the board and began to burnish them onto the wood once I was satisfied with the placement of my design. The vinyl lettering didn’t adhere well at all. It didn’t want to stick to the wood.

Modge Podge and Chalk Paint

I then applied modge podge over the vinyl letters so there wouldn’t be any bleed through when I painted over them with white chalk paint. The last thing I wanted was paint bleeding underneath my lettering.

After the modge podge was dry, I painted white chalk paint over the entire board with a foam brush. Foam brushes are preferable because they don’t leave any bristles left behind.

I used this chalk paint I found on clearance at Walmart. Make sure you check out those clearance endcaps for some deals.

I applied two coats of chalk paint. Make sure you let the paint dry thoroughly. If you don’t the paint make peel off with the vinyl stickers.

Next I peeled off the vinyl stickers for my DIY Bless The Food Sign. This is my favorite part. It reveals the beauty of your sign.

I added 1 inch thick wood strips to the sides of the sign to frame it out. By simply nailing into the sides of the sign. This was a little difficult to accomplish by myself. Thankfully, my mister did all the nailing while I held the sign. Team work. This is the finishing touch that really adds a level of distinction to your sign.

My DIY Bless The Food sign now hangs in my dining room awaiting some more decor to fill the space. One step at a time. One DIY step at a time.